Pollution caused by diesel cars in many of Portugal’s cities has been logged at eight times over the limit imposed by the European Commission.According to the latest pollution standards, Euro 6 (2014, for light passenger and commercial vehicles - 459/2012/EC) which came into force in 2015, emissions of nitrogen oxide may not exceed 80 milligrams per kilometre, but in Portugal’s urban areas, a reading of 641 mg / km has been recorded.
Portugal is not alone in failing spectacularly to hit the Euro 6 targets despite some improvement between 2011 and 2015, but the pollution value in Portuguese cities is higher than those in German’s industrial cities, where the volume of nitrogen oxide is 507 mg / km.
It was the Germany pollution level that enabled the German high court to enable councils to ban diesel cars in congested urban areas.
Diesel vehicles not only release a large amount of CO2, but also nitrogen oxide.
In Portugal, as in many other EU states, diesel cars continue to outsell petrol ones. In 2017, diesel car sales accounted for 61% of total passenger car sales – high, but down on the 2013 when diesel accounted for 72.3% of sales.
On the plus side, hybrid or electric cars have gained market share in recent years and accounted for 4.7% of sales in 2017.
